APA STYLE IN BRIEF

The American Psychological Association offers instructions for preparing documents for publication, whether as a research article, class paper, thesis or dissertation.  Now in its fifth edition, the APA Publication Manual is recognized as the standard style reference for scientific writing in psychology and education.  Since the following brief guide is no substitute for the Manual itself, any writer in psychology should own it.  Contact www.barnesandnoble.com or www.apa.org for purchasing information.
 

Some Common Rules and Examples

For guidelines regarding general skills in punctuation, grammar, or spelling, there are a number of excellent books on style as well as online sources in the reference list.  Also consult a good dictionary, such as Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10^th ed. (1993). 

     1. Biased Language

     2. Headings

     There are up to five levels of headings in a document,
     according to APA. 

However, most writers will use only two or three:

• If you are writing a short article, use only one level—the Second.
• If you use two levels, which is most typical, use the Second and Fourth.
• In long articles, use the Second, Fourth and Fifth.
• In even longer articles or monographs, use the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth.

     3.  Numbers

     4.  Statistics

 In general, present the name of the statistic, the degrees of freedom (if relevant), the value of the statistic, and its probablility level. Note that you place a zero before a decimal point if the number is less than one, unless the number must be less than one.  Italicize the letters used in statistical symbols (t, F, N, n, P), except for Greek letters (S, c, d).

 For example,

F(3,56)=16.33, p=.008
  
t(26)=0.26, p>.05

Page Formats

The following sample pages are printed on 8½ by 11” paper, single-sided, with margins of one inch at top, bottom, and each side.  The font used is either Times Roman or Courier in 12-point type, and the text is flush left with a ragged type on the right margin.

Sample Title Page

Sample Abstract

Sample Presentation of Results

Sample Reference Section

Sample Table

Sample Figure Captions Page

Click here for more examples of page formats.

Quotations

Plagiarism, or taking another person’s work or ideas and passing them off as your own, is wrong and can result in failing or expulsion.  (Read the New School University’s policy for graduate students yourself or go to the Writing Center's useful links.)

While you may know it is illegal, you may not realize how easy it is to plagiarize unintentionally.  You could take notes and forget to attribute them to the original source, read them at a later time and mistakenly think you had written them yourself (an excellent example of what memory researchers call source confusion).  No matter how the plagiarism occurs, there is no excuse.

How to guard against it? 

• When you take notes or copy text, include the citation at the time of note-taking or indicate that it is not yours with quotation marks. 
• Take care in paraphrasing an author’s text.  Either present the quote verbatim and credit the source, or paraphrase the quote (still giving full credit to the original author).
    
  

  Direct Quote:
  	Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost....Many people assume that professional writers don’t need to rewrite; the words just fall into place.  On the contrary careful writers can’t stop fiddling.  (Zinsser, 2001, p. 84-5)
  Paraphrase:
  	Zinsser (2001) stresses that rewriting is an essential part of a writer’s job, and that “careful writers can’t stop fiddling,” because “the words [don’t] just fall into place” (p. 85).

  
  
• Keep your rough drafts, notes, and outlines in case a question about the authenticity of your writing arises.

In-Text Citations 

In order to credit others for their contribution to your work, you will cite these sources in a “parenthetical” style in your text.  Thus, the reader sees immediately where your information comes from, and you do not need to make footnotes or endnotes.

There are generally three parts to an in-text citation: 1) the source of the work, such as the author’s last name, and 2) the date of publication.  Both types of information must always appear.  The third kind of information--3) the page number--is included only when a direct quote appears.

In-text citations can be presented in a variety of ways, depending on your purpose, for example if the focus is on an author, idea, or specific phrasing of an idea.  For example,

1. Emphasize the ideas, themes or arguments that matter by placing the researcher and publication date in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Thus, the author and particular study details are in the background.
     
   The discovery meant that … (Humphrey, 2000).
     
2. Highlight the author(s) of the study, either to make a point about this particular set of findings or to vary your sentence structure.  Note that if the citation for multiple authors is part of a sentence rather than listed in parentheses within the sentence, the '&' or ampersand sign is spelled out.
     
   Jamieson and Hill (1994) found that…
     
3. Another way to create emphasis with a citation is to include a direct quote, enlisting the authority and voice of the researcher as well as evocative language to add to the power of your writing.  The quote is followed by a citation including publication year and page number, so the reference can be looked up with ease.
     
   Freiswyck et al. stated that, “the alliance is one of the most robust, transtheoretical predictors of outcome” discovered by psychotherapy researchers to date (1986, p. 311).
     
4. Even more emphasis is given to a direct quote of more than 40 words.Any quoted material more than 40 words must be indented, in a single-spaced block, without quotation marks.
     
   The experimenter debriefed the subjects at the end of the experiment:
     
   

   The purpose of this experiment was to provide a source of examples for The Psychologist’s Companion. The experiment itself made no sense and had no purpose other than to provide the examples. I hope you enjoyed this meaningful activity. (Sternberg, 2003, p. 124)

   
   
   By presenting the ideas in their original form and language, you are implicitly directing the reader to pay close attention.  Make sure the material is relevant to your argument, and be sparing with these block quotes.  Too many or a less-than-relevant choice will dilute the effect.
     
5. Avoid citing secondary sources as there is no guarantee that the material is cited accurately.  If it is unavailable to read in the original, make it clear you are borrowing from someone else’s citation.
     
   George Miller, in his classic literature review on the limits to our capacity to process information, confessed that he had “been persecuted by an integer” for seven years (as cited in Sternberg, 2003, p. 200).

Single author of a book; edition other than first
      Sternberg, R.J. (2003). The psychologist’s companion:
            A guide to scientific writing for students and researchers
            (4^th ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
      In-text citation: (Sternberg, 2003)

Group author of a book
      American Psychological Association (2001).  Publication
            manual of the American Psychological Association
            (5^th ed.).  Washington, DC: Author.
In-text citation: (APA, 2001)

Chapter in book
      Bem, D.J. (2003).  Writing the empirical journal article.
            In J.M. Darley, M.P. Zanna, & H.L. Roediger III (Eds.)
            The compleat academic (2^nd ed.) Washington, DC:
            American Psychological Association. 
      In-text citation: (Bem, 2003)

3-5 authors of a journal article (print)
      Miller, J.G., Bersoff, D.M. & Harwood, R.L. (1990). Perceptions
            of social responsibilities in India and in the United States:
            Moral imperatives or personal decisions?  Journal of
            Personality and Social Personality, 58,pp. 33-47.
      In-text citation: (Miller et al., 1990) after first citation of all the
          names

Journal Articles Electronic copy,
      Miller, J.G., Bersoff, D.M. & Harwood, R.L. (1990). Perceptions
            of social responsibilities in India and in the United States:
            Moral imperatives or personal decisions? [Electronic version],
            Journal of Personality and Social Personality, 58,pp. 33-47.
     In-text citation: (Miller et al., 1990) after first citation of all the
        names

Information retrieved from a Web site
      American Psychological Association (2001, August 8).
            APAStyle.org [WWW document]. URL
            http://www.apastyle.org/
     In-text citation: (APA, 2001)
           

Article retrieved from a Website
      American Psychological Association (2004).  Scholarships,
            grants and funding opportunities.  Retrieved May 1, 2004,
            www.apa.org/students/grants.html
      In-text citation: (APA, 2004)

Article retrieved from PsycARTICLES
      Schober, M.F. (1998).  Conversational evidence for rethinking
            meaning.  Social Research, 65, pp.  511-535. Retrieved
            May 1, 2004, from PsycARTICLES.
     In-text citation: (Schober, 1998)

Dissertation abstract
      Author, B. (2002).  The effect of stereotype threat on
            academic performance in adolescent girls.  (Doctoral
            dissertation, New School University, 2001). Dissertation
            Abstracts International, 45, 678B.
       In-text citation:  (Author, 2002)

Unpublished Manuscript
      Clark, H.H. (December 1988). Everyone can write better
            (and you are no exception): Advice to students of
            Psychology 207. Unpublished manuscript.
     In-text citation: (Clark, 1988)